Vol. XVn. .No. i. 



THJ-. AGKIUULTUjfuVL NKVV>. 



receiving the sarnie, rel.uisc pricc a.s in funner years, 

 when the pmity of the scruns was equal to that of the 

 .straiii.s thrown in otht-r islands In the earlier years of 

 the cotton industry in the West Indies. Barbados, 

 St. Ivitts, anil St. \'inceiit ordinary were classed to- 

 jielhor, and n-siially sold tor the same prices, these 

 being slightly in ailvance of those paid for the Antigua, 

 Mont.serrat, Nevis, and Anguilla ootton.«. (See West 

 Ivdot.i B^'lMiv Vo\. XV.'p il:\.s 



Kefereuce to the schedule issued by the Aiimiralty, 

 when it was decided to take over all West Indian Sea 

 Island cotton for the Imperial (Government, will show 

 that Barbados had lost its place in the matter of the 

 pi'ice paid for its cotton lint, which was not then classed 

 with St. \'incent and St. Kitts, but was put into a lower 

 grade along with ]\Iontserra% Antigua, and other 

 islands. This point was discussed at a meeting of the 

 Barbados Agricultural Society, where the following 

 statement is reported to have been made b}' Sir V. J. 

 Clarke, K.<\M.<!., President of the Society: — 



Formerly the Barbados cotton fetched a price not 

 much below that of St. Vincent cotton. That price 

 was within the lange of prices ijuoted for superfine 

 cotton. After the Admiralty commandeered the cotton 

 of this island i\ communication was received stating 

 that, upon the advice of some gentlemen connected 

 with the British Cotton Growing Association, Barba- 

 dos cotton would not be within the range of prices 

 t]Uoted for superfine, but would be relegated to the 

 lower grade of ordinary cotton, and consequently 

 fetch a very much lower price. 



It would appear that the inferior quality of the 

 cotton complained ol by the (Jolonial Office may have 

 resulted from the conditioiis outlined above, and if 

 this be true, the suggestion of fraud in the matter 

 would disappear. 



Barbados is the only one of the British West 

 Imlies against the cotton industrv of which this charge 

 of Uii.'cing has been made. It i.s also the only island in 

 which hybrid cotton has been grown on a commercial 

 scale, and where the local I >epartment of Agriculture 

 has persisted with e.xperiinonts in ihe hybridizing of 

 cotton, and in the cultivation of low grade native cotton 

 with the idea of improving it. 



I 'J'iierc are in I'.arbados, of course, estates on which 

 go(xl cotton IS produced. Some of this is produced 

 directly from seed imported from St. Kitts, which 

 represents the closely bred strain of cotton maintained 



at a higii -level by persistent and consisteno efforts od 

 the part of the local Superintendent, undi-r thedirectioa 

 of the Iuipri;ial Department of Agriculture. So good 

 indeed is the present situation in .St. Kitts, that 

 llr. F. H. Shepherd, the Agricultural Superintendents 

 stated in a letter to the Imperial ( 'oinmissioner recent- 

 ly, that 'one could rifl.' round the island, and hardly 

 see a' rogue in any of the cotton fields.' 



K.xperience has shown, and the instance under 

 discussion illustrates, that the fine cotton mdustry can 

 not safel} be left to individual effort, but it nuist be 

 the close concern of the Government of each island to 

 provide through its Agricultural Department for an 

 adequate supply oTsec<l of good quality, ('otton grow- 

 ers will usually be found not only willing, but anxious 

 to a\ail themselves of any source of carefully selected 

 seed, 



SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE REL.^- 



TION OF LINT LENGTH TO 



RAINFALL. 



A paper on the above subject- by Mr. K. E. 

 Kelsick, Acting Chemical Assistant, St. Kitts, appear* 

 in the UV,v< Indian Bulletin, \'o\. XVII, No. 2. The 

 conclusions reached by -Mr. Kelsick arc of fon>iiderablc 

 interest: they are reproduced below 



I>urmg the season 1917-18 it was obaervetl that the 

 lint from the selected plants of the dift'erent strains of Sea 

 Island cotton grown at thf Experiment Station, J>a Gunrite, 

 was much shorter than lint from the sanve strains grown 

 during the previous season. 



As it was considereil improbable that the plants had 

 deteriorated, an attempt has been made to discover some 

 other factor which could account for the differencf in lint 

 length in 1916 and 1917. 



It has been fonnd in Egypt that .there in a ri.se in lint 

 length a few days after ihe plants havu been irrigated. There- 

 seems to be no reason why the same should not hold good in 

 these islands : that is, that cottoii plants will on)}' produce 

 lint of {na.ximum length when they have an ample supply 

 of water at their disposal- 



Tdese results seem to indicate that in these islands the- 

 length to which cotton lint will attain in any season is 

 dependent on the water supply of the plant at the critical 

 period of development. 



To return to the length of lint of the different strains in^ 

 1917-18. The plots from which the plants were selected 

 were planted on April i'6, 1917, therefore over 60 per 

 cent, of the dowers produced opened during the month of 

 August: during this jieriod there were only •'• inche.-i of rain. 

 On the other hand, in 1916-17 the rain which would have 

 affected the developing bolls amounted to 1 1 inches --8 inches, 

 more than in 191 7- I.s — consequently a great ditference in 

 the leugtli of the lint is .seen. 



In view of the.se fatts, it appears th;it great caution 

 should be exercistd in making comparisons of the Itnigth of 

 cotton lint grown in ditttrent season.-', or in ditl'erenl island* 

 the rainfall of which is in no way comparable 



